Summary of the Aśvamedha sacrifice

[Full title: A Brief note on the sacrifices of the Śatapatha Brāhmaṇa (11): Aśvamedha]

The Aśvamedha which is actually a soma sacrifice is performed by a consecrated king, who is assisted by his four wives, the Mahisī (the senior queen), the Vāvāta (the favourite), the Parivṛktā (neglected wife) and the Pālāgali (who is inferior to the other three queens in social rank). The Mahisī is addressed by the Brāhmiṇ, the Vāvāta by the Udgātṛ, the Parivṛktā by the Hotṛ, and the Pālāgali by the Kṣattṛ. These four queens are served by hundred daughters each of the rājās, the rājayas, the sūtas and the grāmanīs, and the samgrahitṛs respectively. The main object of this sacrifice was to attain political supremacy. But this ceremony was also undertaken to achieve wealth, strength, male progeny and freedom from sins and so on. This ceremony aims at the attainment of paramount sovereignty. In this ceremony a horse was let loose (who is protected by 400 soldiers) to roam over the whole country from place to place. The king or the sacrificer does not accompany the horse but stays his capital near the sacrificial campus for performing certain ritual till the return of the horse. If anyone seizes the horse it means that he stands in the way of the sacrificer’s attaining paramount sovereignty. Therefore it is the duty of the soldiers to protect the horse from all dangers and calamities and to bring it back unscathed to the sacrificer.

After the return of the horse, the main sacrifice takes place. The Aśvamedha sacrifice terminates in the concluding ablution known as the Jumbaka offering at the time of the avabhṛtha (or the final bathing at the end).